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Thursday, May 24, 2007

Basic Public School: 101

It occured to me today, that people who say "I hate to say I told you so... but..." don't really hate to say it, or they wouldn't say it in the first place. Those are folks who actually like to get that last dig in, and want to make sure you know that's what they're doing.

The reason I thought of this, was because of a news item I read the other day. I'm not going to say "told ya so" because the only time I ever say that anyway, is in a joking way. There is nothing funny about this. Besides, this isn't a way to get a dig in, this should be at least a small wake up call to parents with kids in public schools. If you can't take them out and educate them with alternative methods - at the very least you NEED to be aware of what they're being required to listen to in those public schools.

The headline reads "Have sex, do drugs,' speaker tells students" and the story that follows explains that a public high school brought in a guest speaker as part of an assembly that was sponsored by the University of Colorado's Conference on World Affairs. The particular genius that delivered the message to the young people that the headline imparts, was Joel Becker, an associate clinical professor of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles. According to Becker, his reason for saying this was because kids are going to have sex and do drugs anyway, so he was going to encourage them to do it appropriately. Becker was quoted as saying:

"I think as a psychologist and health educator, it is more important to educate you in a direction that you might actually stick to. So, I am going to stay mostly on with the sex side because that is the area I know more about. I want to encourage you to all have healthy, sexual behavior."

Now, if Becker's "direction" was a Biblical one, maybe one that contained a strong message on marriage being between a man and a woman, and young people remaining pure until marriage, then that would have been a fantastic message. Unfortunately, that is not what Becker's direction was. According to at least one family who's 10th grade daughter was required to be in attendance at the panel discussion called STDs: Sex, Teens and Drugs, teenage abstinence was dismissed as an unwise choice and indicative of religious hang-ups.

I read this a few days ago and haven't been able to get it off my mind. I hate it when news items do that to me, but there must be a good reason for it so I'm just going to vent here and hope it serves as beneficial for someone.

First off - this is nothing new. Messages like this are delivered in public schools every single day all across the US and Canada and the rest of the world. They actually start in pre-K here in Canada, and at least kindergarten in the states. They start with endoctrinating our kids into a tolerance and acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle. Classroom discussions, written school policies and libraries stocked with books that promote the gay agenda make it a sure bet that kids in public schools are hearing this message from the time they step foot into the public system. And this is just where it starts, folks. So you're at home teaching your kids what the Bible says, and the local school district is busy promoting the PC gay agenda to your kids from the time they're 5 years old. If you're going to have your kids in public schools, you'd be wise to know that this is what's going on there. Don't be caught off guard by the time your kids are in highschool and stories like this are hitting the media. Don't be shocked when by the time they're in middle school (that's 12 yrs old, folks) they're being given or have access to birth control information and contraceptive devices and abortion providers through the local school district. You realize of course your kids are going to sin anyway, so the local public schools just want to make sure they sin safely. Get it?

Secondly, we should expect no less than this, from an ungodly, unBiblical, anti-Christian source, such as the government run, government funded school system. This is not a "bash public schooling" piece, this is reality. If as Christians we don't expect the unsaved to act as if they are saved, let's not whip out the rose colored glasses and expect the local anti-Christian school districts to act like they are pro-Christian morality. They're NOT. Sure, there might be (and probably are - God bless their hearts) Christian teachers in the local public system, and the influence they have is not to be ignored or gone without praise. However, those Christian teachers are under the same contract to the local government run school just like the non-Christian teachers, and there is only so much they can say, or do, in an official teaching capacity. For most of the kids in the schools, these Christian teachers are not the dominant influence in their lives, in that public school setting. That role goes to the liberal, anti-God, pro-whatever-floats-yer-boat position of the other teachers, counsellors, and various other school officials.

Again I say, this is not a public school bashing piece - it's reality. For a lot parents with kids in public school, the time comes when they say "I had no idea they were teaching that" as it pertains to something coming home from school. If those kids are going to be there, we as their parents need to have every idea of what they're being exposed to so that we can counter it with truth. If such error goes unchecked in a direct, one on one way (parent and kid), that error begins to take root very quickly and soon becomes just a "normal" thing.

I'm not a specialist in the field of social trends (you're shocked, I know) but I can tell you that I come from a generation of teenagers that would have been genuinely disgusted to hear a pro-gay message at some kind of public event. If at 15 years old my peers and I were exposed to something like this, the vast majority of us would have been offended, and known that homosexuality (or pro-abortion, or pro-premarital sex) is just wrong, on every level. This is not to say that the kids of my generation didn't sin too - we did - but we KNEW it was wrong and we knew why.

Would any group of 15 year old kids react the same way today? Are they offended or repulsed at pro-homosexual messages, pro-abortion rallies, or the idea that birth control is available to them? Not in the least! To them, this is normal - they've been hearing about it and being endoctrinated with it since they were little. Guess where that comes from? You got it, the public school system. They are not offended by it, they are not against it, and they are not the least bit shy in telling you about it. To them, it's normal - and you're the freak if you feel differently about it.

If that doesn't disturb you on many levels, it should. This is error gone unchecked after years and years of subtle (and not so subtle) pro-liberal-pro-sin agendas being taught to kids in public schools. We can't expect anything different from the lost who are in authority over our kids, and we'd BETTER be about the business of knowing what it is they're teaching our kids. Don't be one of those parents that says "oh man, I had NO idea!"

In all of this, I know someone is bound to accuse me of distrusting God's sovereignty in our children's lives. I know this because it happens when I write about this. Well, they say, "if you REALLY believed in the sovereignty of God, you'd be okay with kids in ungodly, immoral, pro-garbage public schools". Wrong, but thanks for coming out.

In as much as I do not intentionally feed my kids poision, or set them in the middle of an intersection to play, or encourage them to talk to unfamiliar men in the playground looking for a lost puppy, I do not knowingly put my kids in harms way and use God's sovereignty as an excuse to do so. Can He protect them? Of course He can. But does He allow them to suffer for their parents unwise choices? Well, how many of YOU would be willing to take that test and sit your toddler in the busy intersection of your hometown? None of you? Yeah, I didn't think so - and I wouldn't dare to accuse you of distrusting in the sovereignty of God, either. I'd call you a smart parent who loves their kids and wants to protect them as much as it's within your ability to do so.

The bottom line is simply this:

Know what's being taught to your kids, no matter what setting they're in. Be involved in their lives, talk to them, listen to them, and listen closely. You only get one shot at raising them - and it's a huge responsibility to do it right. I couldn't have written this with any certainty when my children were small. Now that some of them are adults (and one of them is almost there) I know much better than I did then, and I see at least some the results (both good and bad) of the choices I made for them, in educating them. Experience, as they say, is an amazing teacher.